Matilda Tscherpel
Everyone should have come to the realization that climate change is a pretty real, pretty huge thing that’s going on right now given it is 2023 and we have enough scientific studies to prove this. Every single one of us is responsible for its creation, growth and hopefully, one day, end. Or, at least, its deceleration. Our climate is often talked about by politicians and activists and all kinds of famous people that have something to say in the world. But the reality is, if we want to stop climate change, it's not going to happen with new rules and laws made by people with too much power. Not unless we decide to change our daily, comfortable routine to something usually less comfortable. Eat less meat, take the bus instead of the car, the train instead of the plane. Those things aren’t easy but we’re far past the point where living “easy” is going to keep us alive on this planet. So, the question remains, how do we make our lives, and by extension our school, more sustainable? A very simple place to start is, of course, food. And if we’re talking about food at Galt, we’re talking about our beloved cafeteria.
Sustainability in our cafeteria is not something that is a particularly new subject. Over the past few years, as the problem of climate change has become more and more apparent and dangerous to us, the school has been thinking of how to make our cafeteria more and more sustainable. “Sustainability” is a word with many, many definitions and meanings but for a school cafeteria it means one main thing: produce as little waste as possible, in terms of both the food itself and how to serve it.
I’ve spoken to cafeteria supervisor Kay Mills about how Galt is trying to achieve that right now and what obstacles we’re facing in our mission for a sustainable cafeteria. And to be frank, it starts and ends with us, the students. We’re the clientele that is being served, we dictate how much waste our cafeteria is going to produce. And what that means is that it’s the cafeteria’s job to make us produce as little waste as possible by making the food and the way it's being served as pleasant as possible for us. That starts, according to Kay, with getting in touch with us. Finding out what we want to eat, so that there’s less food being thrown away by us or over-produced by the cafeteria. This is why the menu has changed so drastically in the last few years: less big Spaghetti dishes and more easy subs and burgers. And, as far as I can see, that’s definitely been a success so far.
The other main creators of cafeteria-waste are non-reusable dishes and the food’s packaging. In most school cafeterias both of these involve way too much plastic and Galt is no exception. There is still too much, but we are doing better than a lot of other schools, having implemented recyclable paper plates, for example. Yes, the plates are made out of cardboard, they should go into the recycling bin. And while it might not seem like a huge deal to throw something into a different bin, it makes a huge difference. Plastic cannot be recycled and it takes between 400 and 1000 years to fully decompose. Paper decomposes much quicker either way, but by throwing it into the recycling bin, it can even be re-used for a different paper product.
This however is also where most of our problems arise: rules. Especially with Covid (yes, it’s still a thing), there are a lot of hygiene standards that we have to pay attention to, which makes it nearly impossible to reduce waste in the way our food is being served as long as the pandemic is still around. But hopefully, even Covid will be over at some point and we can create a more sustainable future in our school and in our lives, together.
One thing that remains my key takeaway from my conversation with Kay is the involvement of us. I say it’s nearly impossible to change things right now but that very well might not be the truth or maybe you have an idea to improve a different aspect of our cafeteria, whether it be in terms of sustainability or something entirely different. Either way, reach out. To a teacher, to student council or to Kay directly. Change always starts with you.
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